Outdoor Survival Info

When you are bugging out, or building your emergency gear kit, it’s important to have information at hand. When disaster strikes, you won’t be able to take a few hours to hop on the Internet and find the information you need to prepare or react. What if you already had it, and it was right there on your phone?

Check out the Bug Out Bag Book reference application for your Android-powered phone. It’s a mobile reference version of The Bug Out Bag Book, and holds the same valuable content that can help you build a personalized emergency gear kit.

Be prepared. Get the information you need to build a gear kit that works for you. The Bug Out Bag Book Android Application.

People die from the heat every summer. If you’re out in the wilderness, in some survival situation, you need to take some extra precautions to stay safe. There are two key safety areas you need to keep in mind: protection from direct sunlight and hydration.

Protection From Sunlight

Sunburns hurt. The longer you are out in the sun unprotected, the more you can get hurt. Burn enough and you won’t be able to move without some fairly severe pain. In addition to that, direct sun exposure can lead to an increased risk of heat exhaustion.

Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to protect yourself from an excessive amount of sun. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• Find or make some shade to rest under when the sun is at its peak (midday).
• Wear clothes. This might make you a bit warm, but it’s important to find a balance between skin exposure and overheating. Unless you’re working on a tan, try to keep your skin protected.
• Use sunscreen if you have it.
• Lip balm protects your lips from becoming dry and cracked (which is very uncomfortable).
• Wear a hat. This is a good way to keep your head in the shade even if the rest of your body isn’t.

Hydration

Keeping properly hydrated takes care of two necessary bodily functions. It will keep your cells working properly and act as a coolant system fuel for your body. Without sufficient hydration, you won’t last long in the heat.

Your body’s natural coolant system is sweat. As you probably know, sweat is mostly water. It acts by cooling down your body from the outside, and “catching the wind” to increase the cooling. The more you sweat, the more your body uses water. If you are sweating a lot, you will need to drink more water to make up for it.

You won’t last very long without water in your day to day life, but that timeframe shrinks when you are in the heat, exerting yourself. To stay hydrated, simple steps will do:

• Keep water or some type of sports drink with you.
• Keep enough water for your planned journey.
• Have a refillable container, so you can refill your water supply when necessary. It’s also a good idea to have some type of water purification system in your pack, too.
• Stay cool. The less you sweat, the less water your body will use (thus the less you have to drink).

Surviving the heat is not a problem if you take some simple precautions and use your head. Plan ahead, get your necessary gear and protective wear together, and you shouldn’t run into any serious problems.

The key points to keep in mind are to protect yourself from direct sunlight, and to keep yourself hydrated. Do those two things, and you can make it through even the hottest days. If the desert tribes of the Middle East have been doing it for hundreds of years (or more), you can too.

Want to learn more about preparing yourself for an emergency situation? Learn about disaster preparation, survival, and bugging out with The Bug Out Bag Book – How to build a personalized emergency gear kit.

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Soap is something that should be in every personal emergency kit, but it’s one item that is often overlooked. Why is soap so important? Because it cleans stuff. Seriously, it does.

Keeping things clean might be a lower priority for you during an emergency, but it’s something you really need to think about. You need to think about it on a personal comfort level, and on a first aid level. Soap can keep infections away, and help you feel more comfortable. Both are important. Read the rest of this entry »

Water is a vital necessity. Without it, we won’t last beyond a few short days. Unfortunately, water is heavy, so putting a bunch in your bug out bag can hurt as much as it helps. If your bag is too heavy, you’ll move slowly, tire more easily, and use up more of the water in your body than you need to.

So how do you find some middle ground? How do you carry enough water so that you aren’t weighed down too much? The easy solution is to carry water and a water purification system. That way, you have some water to drink right away, and you have something to make most found water drinkable. Read the rest of this entry »

Backpacking Safety Tips
By Natasha Fatale

The most important thing to think about when going on a backpacking adventure is to be prepared for anything. As the saying goes, if it can happen it will happen. These tips will help you avoid any misadventures and enjoy your backpacking trip to the fullest.

Keep Hydrated

It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to keep yourself hydrated no matter what type of a backpacking trip you are on. The best way to do this of course is through the drinking of large amounts of water. You of course do not want to drink it all at once, but spread it out over the course of the day. Making sure that there is plenty of purified drinking water that is available for you and your entire group will lead to many happy campers. Read the rest of this entry »

Hiking Tip – How to Find Water in the Wilderness
By Pauline Go

Hiking is an adventurous outdoor activity which involves walking and trekking day and night. Getting lost or stranded in the wilderness is something that could happen to just about anyone. When you are trapped in the wilderness the single most important thing you need to survive is water. An adult can survive without food for many days but only a few days without water.

Finding water is, therefore, one of the most important wilderness survival skills otherwise dehydration will inevitably occur. Here are some techniques to find water in the wilderness whether you are in desert or in forest: Read the rest of this entry »

Living in the wilderness for any length of time — even just a few days — takes some preparation. There’s more to it than just heading out in the wild and eating berries. You’ll need to tend to things like shelter, water, and fire. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s important to keep rations in your house, and it’s pretty easy to do, too. There’s a lot of talk going around about creating a bug out bag and stocking it with MREs or similar foods. I know, because I do a lot of that talking. Today, however, I want to talk about rations in your home.

It’s important to be ready to bug out and leave town in the event of some disasters, like an approaching hurricane. There are some times, however, that you may need to just stay at home. If you live in areas with heavy winters, you might get snowed in, or be without power for a while. Life can be interrupted yet still allow you to — or make you — stay at home. In these cases, you still need to eat, and your microwave might not be working. What do you do?

It’s simple. Keep food that is relatively non-perishable and can be prepared with nothing more than water, a pot, and fire (or just eaten an room temperature). In my experience, so many people store just enough food in their pantry to get through the coming week. Then they go to the store and buy some more. I suggest having some items that you just keep for months at a time, in storage, in case you need it.

In large quantities, you could keep:

• Rice
• Beans
• Bottled water
• Canned fruit
• Canned vegetables
• Canned Soups

These are all easy to prepare, and will keep you fed and healthy enough until life returns to normal.

Keep all of these in a box in your pantry or garage (sealed up somehow, so no mice or other nasties get in there). Once every few months, go buy some more, and bring your current supply in the house for eating. Rotating your rations out means you’ll always have fresh, edible food in the event that you need it. Hopefully you never will, but it’s good to be prepared.

Remember to store rations in quantities that you will need to feed your family…and then add a little bit more on top of that. Keeping rations in your home is a simple security measure you can take, similar to locking your deadbolt or keeping a firearm near your bed. You may never have the need, but if you do, you’ll be glad you prepared.

I’m not sure if it’s the price of gas over the last couple of years, or just the economy in general, but MREs are more expensive than they used to be. While unfortunate, things like this are just going to happen. It seems like everything is more expensive than it was a few years ago.

But don’t worry. You can still pick up MREs at reasonable rates. I’m a firm believer in MREs — keeping them around for your bug out bag, bug-in disasters, or just to take with you when you head into the wild for some outdoor fun.

Here are the current prices on MREs at BDR Gear.

MRE Case – 12 Pack – No Heater: $88.75 ($7.40 per meal)

MRE Case – 12 Pack – WIth Heater: $92.99 ($7.75 per meal)

On a per-meal basis, they cost about the same as a fast-food meal for one. These, however, provide a lot more nutritional value and have a much longer shelf life. Perfect for bugging out (or in), and affordable, too.

Grab a case and divide it up amongst your family’s bug out bags, or just keep the meals where you need them. I’m going to have a video review of these meals soon, so you’ll be able to see exactly what comes in each one, and how big it is. The size is important for determining how many you will put in a bug out bag, get home bag, or even a purse (if you carry one).

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